Murder plea deal voided by law

One of the two teenagers charged with the alleged homicide of their foster mother in San Patricio is now scheduled to go to trial in March.

In a plea agreement with the state, Desiree Linares, now 16, was suppose to plead no contest to murder, conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, conspiracy to unlawfully take a motor vehicle, larceny and tampering with evidence.

Linares and Alexis Shields, now 16, are charged with allegedly smothering Evelyn Miranda in her San Patricio home June 8, 2011, stealing her car, cell phone and computer and fleeing first to Roswell and then to Eddy County, where they were arrested a couple of days later.

Shields is awaiting trial.

In return for Linares' admission to these charges, the state would not seek adult sanctions against Linares. She would be incarcerated until she is 21 years old. As an adult the crimes carry a maximum of 97 years in prison.

If a plea agreement is not reached between the state and Linares, she will be tried as an adult.

"We had an agreement to a disposition as a juvenile until 21," Linares' defense attorney Jesse Cosby said. "The discussion would be to plead to second-degree murder to facilitate that. The plea paperwork came out that they wanted her to plead to first-degree murder, which was contrary to what we've been discussing but as long as it resulted in the same disposition, we'd accept it. The state said no, you can't and they didn't make us a legal offer.

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Cosby said he feels the state misled the defense.

"We've acted in good faith in this matter," he said. "We've agreed to resolve this case and the state has agreed to resolve it by disposition. We need to go forward and get her in a juvenile detention facility to commence her treatment, education and into rehabilitation. Now, we won't be doing any of that and going to trial. The whole thing was dead from the start. They're (the state) the ones who proposed second-degree. We accepted it back a long time ago. They changed from the time of the oral discussion to the time of written plea."

Under a New Mexico Supreme Court case, state vs. Curtis Jones, the court determined that if a juvenile is amenable to treatment then the juvenile could be sentenced as a youthful offender rather than an adult even though the state originally obtained a written agreement to transfer a juvenile to adult sanctions.

Cosby said he provided the court with a report that states Linares is amenable or willing to accept treatment in a juvenile facility until she is 21 years old.

"The court said no," he said. "In essence, we were agreeing, the state agreed and the court agreed to amenability."

Representing the state, Deputy District Attorney James Dickens said the state and the defense had an agreement but unfortunately it was contrary to the law.

"As the law is, first-degree murder subjects her to adult sanctions," Dickens said. "She would be treated as an adult and not as a child. Defense withdrew the plea when they could not argue for juvenile adjudication. The defense wanted all a long juvenile adjudication. No, they were under the understanding it was going to be first-degree with juvenile adjudication. Both sides didn't fully understand the law. Both sides didn't realize that a first-degree conviction would be an automatic adult conviction. There was a fundamental misunderstanding."